Yesterday.

Yesterday was a very interesting day. I was excited all day because my mum was due to land in St Louis that afternoon. She has come to visit us for four weeks until we all fly home together for Christmas. When the time came to finally leave for the airport we all jumped into my nice shiny new car (yes we finally got ourselves a little motor). It was all going great, Calleigh was quietly playing on my iPhone and we were well on time to pick up my mum, even if we were stuck in a little bit of traffic. 

And then the day took a horrific turn. All of a sudden Calleigh started projectile vomiting. It went all over herself, the car and the car seat. It was horrendous. At the time we were on the interstate so we had to somehow get off the interstate and find a Walgreens to get some stuff to clean her up. I was panicking wondering if she was okay as she just sat there quietly not saying anything, while all the time I was sticking my head out of the window of the car to escape the smell (why oh why did the last thing she ate have to be banana).  

Finally I got a "I okay Momma" as we pulled into a Schnucks supermarket. I ran inside and picked up some kitchen roll, baby wipes and a car air freshener and we got started on the task of cleaning her up. As we stood outside of the car wiping her down I saw glances from other people with a look on their face as if to say "Oh yeah, I've been there" and others that said "Rather you than me". 

Finally we got back on the road and Calleigh was back to her cheery self as if nothing had happened. At this point we were already half an hour late picking mum up. When we got to the airport Mum was overjoyed to see us as I quickly explained our lateness as we hurried back to the car.

Back at home the first job was to bath Calleigh. After that had been done Calleigh sat with mum whilst we spent the rest of the night washing clothes, car mats and the car seat. Which bring me to our next disaster of the day.
We thought washing the car seat would be relatively easy, we took it apart making sure to take pictures so we knew how to put it back together, pretty easy done. Off it went in the washing machine and then the tumble dryer to dry out before tomorrow as we had to take her to daycare in the morning.

The problem came when trying to put it back together. It was impossible, even the with pictures we struggled with which strap goes where and how it all fitted back together. So on the Internet I went, which is when I found out that it is apparently a big no no to wash the straps of the car seat in a washing machine as it can fray them and weaken them rendering them unsafe in the unlikely event of an accident. Oh poo! If only I had read that before.

An hour and a half later we finally managed to get it back together and we decided it would do for the time being but we are now on the hunt for a new car seat. The straps may be fine but I am not willing to take that risk when it comes to Calleigh's safety.

So I would like to ask anyone that knows of a good car seat or has any good reviews to please leave a link in the comments section. We are looking for a toddler seat with a great safety rating and easy to use and clean.